Trouble logging in?If you can't remember your password or are having trouble logging in, you will have to reset your password. If you have trouble resetting your password (for example, if you lost access to the original email address), please do not start posting with a new account, as this is against the forum rules. If you create a temporary account, please contact us right away via Forum Support, and send us any information you can about your original account, such as the account name and any email address that may have been associated with it.

Impression this show suggests to me is that Hina wants it to be a battle of the week show, while Ann, Ines and Lene are going to drag her into the slice of life genre, and teach her to open her tsundere heart and accept a two-way outpouring of love and affection from the trio and Mastah.

__________________

~Speaking my mind, even when it costs me~One must forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged.Heinrich Heine.

Forget Aines, Hina's the one who thinks this should be a fighting show. She does care about the rest of the group on some level, but not until their lives are in danger. Once again, the show manages to combine the battle elements with the daily life elements pretty well, turning a routine food preparation (though made somewhat harder by the miniscule scale) into a war zone. It looks like we're going to get a recurring group of antagonist Shinkis, including the two that showed up this week.

I liked the house-shifting at the start of the episode. So many different styles, from traditional Japanese to Victorian elegance to a cabin in the middle of the woods. Even a space station! It's all just computer graphics and illusions, but it looked really cool. There was even a brief hot spring in there for a bit of light service. Though I wasn't really aware of the doll joints in the previous week's episode, they really stood out this week. The Shinki still look human enough that such things don't really take away from their cuteness, but it's definitely a "cannot unsee" kind of deal.

Loved this episode as well, if a bit excessive on the fan-service side. Quite nice seeing Strarf make herself at home, if a bit on the shy side. Her tsundereness is cute here.

Spoiler:

An Octopus raiding the kitchen? I want to know if it was part of the shopping list or if the mischievous duo - Howling & Mao Chao - brought in that bugger. FOOD FIGHT! A bit on the cliched side, but did enjoy how Starf turned the weaponized food into actual prepared food for the other three to turn into a meal. Nice control with the sword.

I need my hands on that Visualizer (gadget the Shinkis use for homes and battle stages) to pose my Shinkis in photoshoots. Give me a real Shinki as well while you're at it :P.

Ok. So, this is the TV series based on one of KONAMI's popular franchises that went to inspire the making of the first anime series that got released at the end of the previous year.

I was expectant of this show given my positive reaction I had watching the first anime incarnation (OVA).

To start the feeling has been subverted from the OVA, since this brand-new TV anime focuses more on the light-hearted atmosphere above the dramatic turns when something serious or somber approaches.

Spoiler:

For example, at the end of the first episode when Rihito opens the box revealing Strarf inside.

I do agree that watching the Shinkis undertaking domestic chores everday with funny mishaps greatly reminded me of Hand Maid May, and while I cannot say about Sky Girls (given to never have watched that show at all) I do certainly get Infinite Stratos vibes whenever the Shinki battle each other with their armors; just to add that the battle armors design from my POV looks very Gundam-esque.

Now, one thing that greatly reminded the connection with the OVA was Arn's character.

Spoiler:

At first, I thought she was the same character from the OVA, as well as her master who has grown up.

But, the flashbacks towards the end of episode one revealed that they're not the same characters from the OVA.

Both Kaguya and Arn come from the same production design model, Arnval, or that's how it looks like to me, but I can be wrong.

My question is that the Strarf Shinki, briefly introduced into Rihito's household and the lives of his Shinki, is she the same character from the OVA? or is she a different Strarf?

Hmm... the translation whose source I shall not name added a fair number of unnecessary puns into what Howling and MaoChao were saying. I may not be fluent in Japanese, but I recognized several rather ordinary phrases they used were replaced with something rather different and much more punny.

Well, whatever.

This episode seemed much more interested in aiming for fanservice shots, which felt rather jarring given the blatant doll-joints which are part of a shinki's iconic design. I wonder if they did that on purpose.

Master needs to better explain to Hina why he doesn't put his shinkis into battles. I don't think she quite understands where he's coming from. I do find it a bit odd that she had a warrior personality pre-installed. It sounded like Aines' personality was specifically designed for her position in the "family." I would have expected that to be part of the basic setup that Master performed when he gave Hina her name.

I don't know much about Busou Shinki, but they seem to be portraying the Strarf model as particularly capable fighters, what with the champion from last time being a Strarf, and Hina seeming to be a much better fighter than the other three.

Have to say to Master's father, buying your son a new toy is one thing, but pushing a new intelligent being into their "family" is something else entirely. That's the sort of thing you should ask about before doing.

A bit odd that the shinkis get sleepy, but I imagine their non-combat behavior was likely designed to mimic human behavior, so it makes sense.

Aines made me laugh when she started trying to clean each grain of rice by hand.

So where exactly did Howling and MaoChao come from? One assumes a shinki needs fairly regular recharging, so I doubt they're feral or anything like that. Presumably their master lives nearby.